The chairman of a County Antrim Gaelic sports club has resigned after it
voted to remove entrance gates dedicated to the memory of two Irish War
of Independence martyrs in order to secure a grant from a
unionist-controlled council.

A dispute over a sectarian loyalist parade through the mainly
nationalist town of Rasharkin last week is being linked to the “leak” of
private messages targeting Sinn Fein Assembly member Daithi McKay.

Recently released government papers dating from 1985 have again reopened
a debate about negotiations which took place during the 1981 hunger
strike which some have argued could have prevented the deaths of six of
the ten republican prisoners who died.

A priest has spoken about God’s “perfect timing” after he officiated at
the joint funeral mass of a man murdered by British soldiers and the
wife who campaigned in his memory, despite them dying exactly 45 years
apart.

Senior Sinn Fein political figure Daithi McKay, who worked to expose
wrongdoing in the murky world of Ireland’s NAMA property deals, could
end up being the only direct casualty of the scandal following his
forced resignation this week.

The main Apprentice Boys of Derry parade of the year infuriated
residents after loyalist band members were seen to lead inflammatory
chanting and sectarian singing at the heart of the overwhelmingly
nationalist city.

Thousands attended this years anti-internment bonfires, traditionally
held on the feast day of the Assumption, and which have become public
displays of nationalist dissatisfaction with the Stormont administration
and British rule.

Irish corruption is again the subject of international media attention
following the arrest of the President of the Olympic Council of Ireland
(OCI) Pat Hickey as part of a Brazilian police investigation into an
insider ticket touting scandal.

Tributes have been paid following the death of the former Bishop of
Derry, Edward Daly, who attended to the victims on Bloody Sunday at the
risk of his own life. However, his memory has also been subjected to a
sickening sectarian attack by a former member of the British Crown
forces who claimed to have been present at the massacre.

Historians involved in advising the decade of centenaries for the Dublin
government have revealed how they were asked to provide pro-British
propaganda for use in the north of Ireland, but refused “point blank”.

Hundreds gathered in Dungiven South Derry last Sunday, 31st July, to
march in commemoration of INLA Volunteer and H-Block martyr Kevin Lynch,
who died after 71 Days on Hunger Strike, on August 1st 1981.